My purpose in life

I believe that my purpose in life is simply to live my life as happily as possible. All actions should have their positives and negatives compared, and whichever action would cause more enjoyment in my life should be taken. All other factors only act to decide the outcome of an action.

I generally live my life by this, and it is very simple really. I've told this to some people and they don't seem to agree that this is a good rule to follow.

I have not heard a good argument against this though, and I'm sure there's one out there.

For example: I was arguing with a friend of mine who believes that love and relationships should not be perused because they are illogical and cause you to act foolishly and irrationally. I told him that even though my actions when I am in love may seem irrational, the act of following through with my love interests is itself the most logical course of action, since doing so would result in the most enjoyment in my life compared to the alternative action (not following my feelings for love). He did not agree at all, but never gave any counter argument.

I would like to hear someone's counter argument to this.

Do you agree that this is a good rule to live life by? Do we have a purpose other than simply trying to enjoy life?

The probability that I was procrastinating when I was typing this post:
P(have big assignment due) = 0.6
P(posting on TypoC) = 0.2
P(having big assignment due | posting on TypoC) = 0.7

So you're saying that, if it were possible, you would hook yourself up to a dopamine tank and lay drooling into space for the rest of you life. That's an ideal consistent with any morality that considers happiness as the greatest good.

So you're saying that, if it were possible, you would hook yourself up to a dopamine tank and lay drooling into space for the rest of you life. That's an ideal consistent with any morality that considers happiness as the greatest good.

Happiness is always the motivator behind a moral choice. Even the people who chose to burn at the stake gained a kind of happiness from their sacrifice. People don't always prefer the option that leads to the most happiness, though, nor do I think they should. There are other factors to consider, things that can be given a higher value than pleasure in itself.

Happiness is always the motivator behind a moral choice. Even the people who chose to burn at the stake gained a kind of happiness from their sacrifice. People don't always prefer the option that leads to the most happiness, though, nor do I think they should. There are other factors to consider, things that can be given a higher value than pleasure in itself.

Happiness is the motive behind a moral choice in the sense that a value is an expression of desire for something; and desire, in turn, is the expectation that the desired thing will, upon your receiving it, bring you some form of happiness. As far as the "other factors" I alluded to, you need only look back at the times you've chosen a difficult path over an easy and pleasant one. In those cases, the value of happiness itself was outweighed by a deeper consideration.

I believe that my purpose in life is simply to live my life as happily as possible. All actions should have their positives and negatives compared, and whichever action would cause more enjoyment in my life should be taken. All other factors only act to decide the outcome of an action.

I generally live my life by this, and it is very simple really. I've told this to some people and they don't seem to agree that this is a good rule to follow.

I have not heard a good argument against this though, and I'm sure there's one out there.

For example: I was arguing with a friend of mine who believes that love and relationships should not be perused because they are illogical and cause you to act foolishly and irrationally. I told him that even though my actions when I am in love may seem irrational, the act of following through with my love interests is itself the most logical course of action, since doing so would result in the most enjoyment in my life compared to the alternative action (not following my feelings for love). He did not agree at all, but never gave any counter argument.

I would like to hear someone's counter argument to this.

Do you agree that this is a good rule to live life by? Do we have a purpose other than simply trying to enjoy life?

Enjoying life is not a real purpose, imo. It's a made up purpose because humans are programmed to survive. Their mind looks at that and theorizes that this is the purpose of life, but imo, it isn't. There truly is no purpose. It just happens.

That realization, however, leads to some interesting conclusions, and tends to promote selfless behavior over selfish behavior. That's how I see it.

Happiness is the motive behind a moral choice in the sense that a value is an expression of desire for something; and desire, in turn, is the expectation that the desired thing will, upon your receiving it, bring you some form of happiness. As far as the "other factors" I alluded to, you need only look back at the times you've chosen a difficult path over an easy and pleasant one. In those cases, the value of happiness itself was outweighed by a deeper consideration.

For me, it seems those times I've chosen the more difficult path, I was basically delaying happiness now, in hopes of attaining more happiness or stopping unhappiness in the future. The motivation is still happiness.

I'll do some introspecting though, see if I can't find some other motivations. It might help if you ask me some leading questions.

For me, it seems those times I've chosen the more difficult path, I was basically delaying happiness now, in hopes of attaining more happiness or stopping unhappiness in the future. The motivation is still happiness.

I'll do some introspecting though, see if I can't find some other motivations. It might help if you ask me some leading questions.

Consider the man who leaps in front of an automobile to push a child out of the way. He wasn't motivated by a desire for maximum happiness; in doing what he did, he placed a greater value in his fellow man than in pleasure itself. This is what happens with many of the dilemmas we face in life. We're given a choice between what is easy and pleasant, and what is likely to bring us much suffering. Often enough, we choose the latter, because we have some deeper principle than getting as much happiness as we possibly can.